SiriusXM restores BBC1 after fans protest online

After fans light up Twitter, SiriusXM brings BBC Radio 1 back to their lineup—but only online. Fans are less than pleased with the compromise.

Following a rash of tweets, emails, and calls from angry BBC Radio 1 fans, the station will return to SiriusXM Radio, but only online.

The satellite-radio company pulled the London-based pop station last week without notice, sparking outrage from fans. In response, they gathered on Facebook and Twitter to force SiriusXM to bring back the station.

“Get BBC Radio 1 Back on Sirius XM,” a Facebook group, attracted nearly 3,700 fans since its creation last week. (SiriusXM replaced BBC Radio 1’s channel slot with a disco station, Studio 54.)

The group encouraged subscribers to call SiriusXM and complain—and even cancel their subscriptions—as a sign of protest. Fans also flooded SiriusXM’s and BBC Radio 1’s Facebook pages with complaints.

Although today’s news that BBC Radio 1 will return to SiriusXM’s online lineup on Friday, fans are still not pleased that the station will not be heard on satellite receivers.

Margaret Thwaites, a BBC Radio 1 fan and subscriber, said the solution is “unacceptable and offensive.” She is “insulted by the ignorance of this programming decision.” Another fan, Jeremy Berens, said “the fury or rage will continue!!! Unacceptable solution.”

On Twitter, fans are vocal in their displeasure, also. Josef, a BBC Radio 1 listener, tweeted the deal is not good enough and he wants to listen to the station in his car. Another fan, @4rilla, tweeted that “internet only doesn’t cut it dummies.”

J.K. Rowling 's adult fiction debut, 2012's The Casual Vacancy , confused most critics and quite a few readers when it came out. One part mystery and two parts blackest social satire, it was the polar opposite of Harry Potter ; readers expecting more fun magical times got petty small-town in-fighting, and well-meaning heroes gave way to sharp, merciless caricatures of lives in an English country village.